Thrown Away Monet And Other Artistic Oops Moments

This comes just after a woman fell into a rare Picasso at the MET. Evidently, artistic “oops” moments aren’t as rare as you think. A painting by Giorgio de Chirico, “Piazza d’Italia,” was hanging on the wall of a townhouse in the Netherlands when demolition began on a bank next door. The wrecking ball came through the wall of the house and shot a perfect hole through the canvas. In Germany, a Ming dynasty lacquer plate — about 600 years old — was hit by a housekeeper’s elbow and ended up in bits on the ground. And one night at Tavern on the Green in 1995, Jean Kennedy Smith, then the American ambassador to Ireland, was being honored by Irish America magazine for her work bringing about a cease-fire in Northern Ireland. To commemorate the event, a piece of Waterford crystal was carved in the shape of an American flag with eagles. Before anyone could get their hands on the crystal, however, a speaker heading for the podium brushed past the sculpture and it toppled off the back of the stage.